


Your Ship Sucks and I Bet You Suck at Kissing, Too

by BaronVonChop



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Characters Writing Fanfiction, Conventions, Cosplay, Enemies to Friends, F/F, Fluff, Friendship, Online Friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-13
Updated: 2020-06-13
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:21:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,129
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24705238
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BaronVonChop/pseuds/BaronVonChop
Summary: Catra and Adora are fanfic writers for rival ships in the same fandom. They have never met in person, until they run into each other at a con...
Relationships: Adora/Catra (She-Ra)
Comments: 41
Kudos: 281
Collections: Himmelslieds Collection of Catradora Goodness





	Your Ship Sucks and I Bet You Suck at Kissing, Too

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to my beta readers for their help and suggestions! Any remaining mistakes are on me.

_Lydya crept through the echoing corridors of the strange castle. The tiny golden hairs on the back of her neck prickled. There was something more at work here than she could sense. A sudden sound behind her made her turn._

_"Ah, Lydya Brightsword," purred a familiar voice, rich and velvety. "How nice of you to fall into my trap." A shape approached from the gloom. Val Darkflame, daughter of the Void Empress. Her baroque battle armor could not hide the lithe physique underneath. Val said, "How I've longed to have you to myself. How is exile treating the last dragonmage?" Or should I say…" She narrowed her violet eyes. "...Your Majesty?"_

_Lydya felt her heart beating against her moonsteel armor. She licked her lips_

Catra paused, her fingers hovering over her keyboard. She read back over what she had just written. "Argh," she groaned, sinking her head into her hands. Her fingers clutched the shaggy mane of her hair as she squeezed her eyes shut, as if she could make her writing better by not looking at it. The scene was so clear, so _cool_ in her mind, but when she tried to put it in words, she couldn't capture it at all. She loved the Valydya ship, so why was she having such a hard time writing it lately?

A message appeared in the corner of her screen:

SCORPIA: i can't believe swordcon is only two days away! and we meet up tomorrow!!!!

Catra smiled, glad for the distraction. She switched over to the chat.

x__catra__x: oh you're excited? i never would have guessed  
x__catra__x: :3  
SCORPIA: AAAAAAAAAAA im excited!!!!!  
x__catra__x: haha  
x__catra__x: me too  
SCORPIA: i knew it!!!  
x__catra__x: did you wrap up those pics you were working on?  
SCORPIA: yeah and i even had time to collect some of my favorite valydya pictures into a zine and print off a bunch!!!!  
SCORPIA: ill bring them to the con  
SCORPIA: i hope we run into other cdm fans so i can hand them out

Catra shook her head. The fandom for the Crown of the Dragonmage was huge. There were sure to be lots of fans at SwordCon.

x__catra__x: i don't think that will be a problem  
SCORPIA: do you think there will be a lot of other valydya fans  
x__catra__x: there better be, brightheart sucks  
x__catra__x: i don't know why anyone ships val with her boringass ‘best friend'

Tess Oakheart was fine as a supporting character, Catra supposed, but she was just so… friendly. Catra tended to ignore Tess in her own fics.

Entrapta🤖: Based on the number of posted fics, the ratio of fanart, and the prevalence of the tag, I think it's safe to assume that there will be more BrightHeart shippers than Valydya shippers at the con.

Leave it to Entrapta to follow a conversation silently until she could apply statistics to it.

x__catra__x: uuuugh i know  
x__catra__x: brightheart is literally the worst ship of any fandom ever  
Entrapta🤖: An interesting hypothesis. What criteria are you using for this analysis?  
x__catra__x: the fact that it sucks  
x__catra__x: so wholesome  
x__catra__x: who wouldn't ship lydya with val, the two of them have such awesome chemistry  
x__catra__x: i mean they hate each other but they love each other  
SCORPIA: THEY LOVE EACH OTHER!!!!! <3 <3 <3 <3  
x__catra__x: yeah it rules  
x__catra__x: but lydya and tess were childhood friends for crying out loud  
x__catra__x: uuuuuugh  
x__catra__x: hey did you finish that meta i mentioned  
Entrapta🤖: It took a while, but it is now complete. I've loaded it onto Emily's hard drive in case the hotel Wifi is unreliable.  
x__catra__x: cool thanks  
Entrapta🤖: And have you completed the fic you were working on?  
SCORPIA: i cant wait to read it!!!!!  
x__catra__x: no  
x__catra__x: i couldn't finish it  
SCORPIA: thats ok, take your time!!! itll be awesome when its done :)  
Entrapta🤖: You can't rush great writing!  
x__catra__x: or even sucky writing  
x__catra__x: because lately my writing sucks  
SCORPIA: YOUR WRITING DOESNT SUCK IT IS AWESOME  
SCORPIA: AND YOU ARE AWESOME  
Entrapta🤖: You are my favorite writer!

Catra sniffed and gave the words on her screen a little smile. Before she could get too sentimental, a thought struck her. She wasn't writing, but she'd bet who was... her rival, her nemesis, the bane of her existence: Adora. The biggest BNF in CDM.

x__catra__x: ugh you know what  
SCORPIA: what?  
x__catra__x: adora and her dweeb friends will def be there  
x__catra__x: the worst fans of the worst ship  
SCORPIA: well its a big con  
SCORPIA: even if theyre there you probably wouldnt run into them  
Entrapta🤖: If you saw them, would you even know who they were?  
x__catra__x: bow and glimmer are always posting pictures of themselves in their latest cosplay  
x__catra__x: so yeah i know their dorky faces  
x__catra__x: apparently they're going to be cosplaying tess and ivan  
x__catra__x: which makes sense because tess is ultrabland and ivan lightsinger is the worst character ever  
x__catra__x: all bards suck already and he sucks even for a bard  
x__catra__x: i hope they don't make a lydya costume for adora  
SCORPIA: that might be cute  
x__catra__x: then they'd probably take all these awful brightheart pictures the whole time  
x__catra__x: wait cute????  
SCORPIA: i mean terrible!!!!!  
Entrapta🤖: There will probably be many others also dressed as Lydya, Tess, and Ivan, leaving some margin of error for identifying those three.  
x__catra__x: they also posted that they would be wearing pins with their profile pictures on them  
Entrapta🤖: Ah.  
Entrapta🤖: Well, that would indeed make identifying them simpler.  
Entrapta🤖: This would allow us to avoid them if we see them.  
x__catra__x: yah  
x__catra__x: or we could tell them they suck to their sucky faces  
x__catra__x: especially adora and her sucky fics  
x__catra__x: with all their sucky kudos and comments from other people who also suck  
SCORPIA: um  
SCORPIA: well im glad we can hang out at least  
Entrapta🤖: We hang out all the time!  
SCORPIA: in person i mean

Catra chuckled. Her friends never posted selfies on social media, but she still had strong mental images of what they looked like: Scorpia would be a sweet, mousey girl with huge round glasses and a tangle of hair, and Entrapta would be tall and stately, with sharp features and short, immaculately gelled hair.

x__catra__x: it's gonna be weird seeing you guys in person  
SCORPIA: thats the BEST PART!!!!  
SCORPIA: i mean the con is going to be awesome too….  
Entrapta🤖: We're meeting at the hotel, right?  
SCORPIA: thats the plan  
SCORPIA: roomies!!!  
SCORPIA: :) :) :) :)  
Entrapta🤖: I checked out photos of the hotel lobby. There are some couches by the front windows. We can meet there.  
Entrapta🤖: Which brings me to a question I had. How will we recognize each other?  
x__catra__x: look for the angriest girl there, that's me  
x__catra__x: plus here's a picture

She uploaded a selfie she didn't hate. In it, she wore a plain black t-shirt and a battered leather jacket, and flashed a sarcastic peace sign at the camera.

SCORPIA: WOA you look AWESOME!!! x__catra__x: dude shut up  
x__catra__x: how about you guys  
SCORPIA: um  
SCORPIA: im not a fan of how i look but heres a picture

Scorpia posted a drawing of herself. Scorpia had drawn herself as slightly buff, with cooler hair than Catra had imagined for her and no glasses. Catra couldn't fault her for wanting to present an idealized version of herself.

x__catra__x: cool  
x__catra__x: entrapta, you?  
Entrapta🤖: Well, I don't really like to have my picture taken, but I do have accurate measurements of my relevant features.

The chat scrolled for a while as Entrapta listed precise measurements for her height, her weight, and the size and location of every facial feature, down to the millimeter. She ended with,

Entrapta🤖: My hair is 1,466mm long and #ae77ae

It took Catra a moment to realize that was an HTML hex color code. She looked it up. Well, that was unexpected.

x__catra__x: wait, you have really long hair, and it's purple???  
x__catra__x: you could have just started there  
x__catra__x: you didn't have to say how many millimeters wide your eyebrows are or whatever  
Entrapta🤖: I wanted to be thorough!  
x__catra__x: okay does everyone have everything they need for the trip  
SCORPIA: i sure do!!!!  
Entrapta🤖: I may have to leave my hair dryer behind. It's a dilemma.  
x__catra__x: c'mon, the site said the hotel's gonna have a hair dryer  
Entrapta🤖: Yes, but what if it's not a good one?

Catra shook her head with a smile. It took some haggling, but eventually she and Scorpia managed to talk Entrapta down to a reasonable number of items.

SCORPIA: okay guys its getting late  
SCORPIA: i should get ready for bed  
SCORPIA: SLEEP TIGHT  
SCORPIA: I LOVE YOU ALL  
SCORPIA: <3 <3 <3 <3  
Entrapta🤖: Good night!

Catra didn't really feel that tired, but she knew she should get ready for bed, since she had to wake early for the trip to the airport.

x__catra__x: ok good night  
x__catra__x: valydya for life!  
x__catra__x: see you tomorrow  
SCORPIA: OMG

She closed the window, glared at her unfinished fic, and typed a few more words. She frowned and deleted the words she had just typed. Sighing, she shut down her computer and got ready for bed. Lying there, she found her mind running in circles, trying to imagine the trip, meeting her friends, the con, and the people she might run into. She tried to come up with cutting remarks she could direct at Glimmer, Bow, and their faceless friend Adora. Whatever she looked like, she was probably as annoying as her friends.

She reached over to her nightstand, grabbed her phone, and opened the group chat. At least she'd be seeing her friends in person in only a matter of hours. On that thought, she tossed her phone back on her nightstand, punched her pillow a few times, and eventually fell asleep.

* * *

The next morning, she was packing her duffel bag when she paused. She removed the standard clothes she had stuffed into her bag, her usual t-shirt and jeans, and went looking for something else. What had happened to that top she had bought a few months back, the one whose color almost matched Val's current casual look? She found it in the back of a drawer. The cut was wrong, but the color was close. She also grabbed a pair of trousers like Val's. They were unworn, with the size stickers still on them, and when she tried them on real fast, she realized the legs were too long and she would have to roll up the cuff. She folded up the shirt and trousers as best she could and put them in the bag.

It wasn't really cosplay, not really. But the day before the con was a little late to be worrying about a proper cosplay. And to put more effort into it would make her as dorky as Glimmer and Bow, right?

Since the con was the next day, a t-shirt and jeans would do for today's clothes. When it was time to head out the door and make her way to the airport, she paused to consider her footwear. She had been about to grab her sneakers, but Val would wear boots. Catra didn't own any boots like Val's, but she did own boots… She went with the boots.

It still definitely wouldn't be cosplay, she told herself. And if it wasn't cosplay, it couldn't be bad cosplay. Sure, that made sense.

* * *

The trip was pretty uneventful, but everything took longer than expected. She tried several times to write in various waiting rooms and on the plane, but she felt distracted by everything going on around her. She ended up mostly removing things she had previously written that she didn't like, or highlighting large sections of text to leave herself comments like "Make this suck less." When she arrived at the hotel, late and disgruntled, her story was further from being finished than it had been when she left on the trip. She hefted her duffel bag back onto her shoulder and looked around for Entrapta and Scorpia. Entrapta had mentioned couches by the entrance. She spotted them, and sure enough, there was Entrapta.

It was obviously Entrapta because she was looking right at Catra and waving, with a big smile on her face. As promised, she had very long, very purple hair. She wore overalls, a long-sleeved shirt, and high-top sneakers.

Catra smiled and gave a small wave, walking over.

Before she could say anything, Entrapta cried out, "Hi! It's so great to meet you! I'm Entrapta, haha, you knew that! Wow, isn't this great? I've never been to a hotel before! I don't get out much, but I'm really, really excited to be here! This is going to be so much fun!"

Catra had always read Entrapta's voice as controlled and calculating based on her IMs, but her voice in person was anything but. It was nasally, warbly, and possibly the most endearingly enthusiastic voice Catra had ever heard.

Catra dumped her duffel bag on a couch and sat down next to it. "Hey. It's cool to meet you in person." She paused, unsure what to do next. Hug? Shake hands? They had known each other for so long, but this also felt like they were meeting for the first time. In the end, she settled for extending a fist, which Entrapta bumped with a squeal of joy.

"Wow, you're so cool! Not that I'm surprised, but still. Hey, did you see Scorpia when you were coming in? I thought she'd be here by now."

Catra shook her head. She had expected Scorpia to already be in the lobby, so she hadn't looked around much on her way in.

Entrapta looked toward the doors. "Maybe she's behind that tall, muscular woman who just came in!"

Catra looked. The newcomer was standing by the doors looking lost, scanning the room while chewing her lower lip. She wore a red tank top and leggings, and she had bleached white hair with the sides buzzed short. There was something about that haircut that struck Catra as very familiar.

"It couldn't be…" Catra muttered, taking out her phone. She was bringing up the drawing Scorpia had sent of herself when the person in the doorway saw them. Her face lit up and she rushed over.

"Hey there! You must be Entrapta and Catra! Hi, I'm Scorpia." She had a husky and pleasant voice. "Would it be all right if I hugged you?"

Entrapta stood up and threw her arms wide. "Yeah okay!"

"Bring it in!" Scorpia exclaimed, wrapping Entrapta in a hug. When they released the hug, Scorpia looked at Catra. "Catra? C'mon, you want some of this?"

Catra was feeling a little dazed from trying to mentally rearrange her perception of Scorpia. "Sure, I guess--" She hadn't even finished standing before Scorpia gave her the best hug she had ever received in her life.

"I'm a hugger," Scorpia said into Catra's hair.

When Scorpia was done hugging Catra, Catra sat back down with a thump, dangling one leg over the couch in an attempt to recover some of her lost dignity.

Scorpia pulled up a third couch, which she moved with one arm and no apparent effort. She took off her backpack and sat down.

Catra raised an eyebrow at the backpack. "Is that all you brought?"

"Yeah, I try to travel light. You never know how much room the other passengers are going to need for their stuff, so I try not to take up too much space. I feel like it's the least I can do to make up for taking up so much of the seat for, you know," and she waved her hands around to indicate her shoulders and arms.

Catra scowled. "Dude, don't feel like you need to take up less space for someone else! You don't owe them anything!"

Scorpia cast her eyes down. "Gosh, that's awfully nice of you to say."

Entrapta called out, "Your muscles are awesome!"

"Wow," Scorpia said, "thank you! You know, I wasn't sure what it would be like meeting you two in person, but this feels just like our group chat."

This caught Catra off guard, because her first thought was that this meeting could not be any less like their group chat. But as she thought about it, she realized that, although Entrapta and Scorpia looked and sounded nothing like what she had expected, she still felt the same relaxed sense of familiarity. "Yeah, you know what? It kind of does."

Entrapta flung herself sideways on her couch. She somehow managed to say out loud, "@channel Yay!"

They checked in at the front desk and found their room.

"Oh, look at this place!" Scorpia said, walking in first and looking around with wide eyes.

The room looked pretty standard to Catra: two queen-sized beds, an extra folding bed they had requested, a desk, a TV, a single armchair, some bland art on the walls, and a small bathroom.

Entrapta took out her phone and swiped to the camera. "I've got to capture this moment!" she said, taking several pictures of the room, as well as of the three of them standing in the entranceway.

Catra asked, "I thought you hated having your picture taken?"

Entrapta looked surprised. "This is a visual log!"

They started getting settled. When they were somewhat unpacked, Catra lounged on one bed, Scorpia relaxed in the armchair, and Entrapta set up her laptop at the desk.

Catra looked at the laptop, which was covered in a solid layer of colorful stickers. "We finally get to meet the famous Emily in person! So to speak."

Entrapta cackled. "Yeah, I never go anywhere without her!" She paused. "Of course, most of the time, I never go anywhere…"

"Are you guys hungry?" Scorpia asked. "The lunch on the airplane was kinda small, and I haven't eaten since then…"

Catra took the opportunity to dramatically roll onto her stomach and stretch out her limbs. "Ohmygosh I'm starving!"

"Let's order something!" Entrapta offered, already pulling up options on Emily. "There's a pizza place near here with good ratings! Wow, they've got a ton of toppings."

Scorpia and Catra got up to look over her shoulder at the options.

"I'd like the sausage, ham, and mushrooms," Scorpia said. "Oh, and olives!"

Catra kept reading and re-reading the list. "Anchovies and… onions."

"Stinky toppings for the stinky girl!" Entrapta declared happily.

"Hey, I've been traveling all day!" Catra said, her voice rising.

Entrapta shrugged. "Just an observation! Okay, I think I'll get… extra cheese for sure… artichoke hearts… pineapple… and… bacon!"

"I'm pretty hungry," Scorpia admitted. "Maybe we should order some garlic bread?"

"Yeah, garlic bread!" Entrapta enthused. "Then we can all be stinky!"

While they waited for their order to arrive, Scorpia opened her backpack and withdrew a stack of small zines.

Entrapta's delighted squeal was barely audible to humans. "Oh, they're so tiny!"

"Do you think they're too small?" Scorpia asked, worried.

"I think they're perfect!" Entrapta gushed.

Catra took one and paged through it. "The pictures are really clear. This came out really well!"

"Oh thank goodness! I mean, I wanted to be able to bring a bunch, and I didn't want them to take up a lot of room in people's luggage, because then maybe they wouldn't want them…"

"They'd better want them!" Catra declared. "Because Valydya is the best ship in the show!"

Entrapta added, "Yeah, and your art is really good!"

"I don't know…"

"Yeah, it's fine," Catra said.

"Aw, you guys…" Scorpia blushed.

Then the pizza arrived, and they all dug in.

"Let me show you that meta you requested!" Entrapta said, around a mouthful of pizza and garlic bread.

"You said you managed to find everything I asked for?" Catra asked.

"All of it!" Entrapta declared. "It's mostly a matter of careful tagging, which lays the groundwork for later analysis." She wiped her fingers and pulled up a long text document on Emily.

"Wow, I can't wait to see this!" Scorpia said. She and Catra scooted closer, bringing their food.

Entrapta launched into her presentation. "When you compare how often Lydya and Val say each other's names with how often Lydya and Tess say each other's names, at first the numbers for Lydya and Tess are much higher." As she spoke, she gestured around the screen with her cursor, highlighting various bits of text. "But if you account for the amount of time they spend in each other's company, compared to their overall screen time—or page time for the novels—you see that the results are clearly skewed toward Valydya!"

Catra clenched a victorious fist. "I knew it! Valydya for life!"

"And that's not all!" Entrapta continued. "I tracked how much time they spend looking at each other, which I've subdivided into ‘definite eye contact,' ‘likely eye contact,' or ‘other.' Of course, it was harder to do for the novels, so I cross-referenced dialog with descriptions of character action to try to create a reasonable estimate."

"Wait," Catra said, "you did an analysis of the eye contact in the books as well?"

"Yeah, you asked me to!" Entrapta said. Her forehead creased. "Wasn't I supposed to?"

Catra opened her mouth, but it took her a few moments to figure out what to say. "I didn't think you would check the novels as well! That's… a lot."

Entrapta gave a nervous laugh. "Yeah… it was… anyway, there were fewer definite cases in the novels, since I only counted when the narration specifically said that one of them was looking at the other, so a lot more of the data was speculative. The overall trend continued, though: there was more eye contact per shared screen-or-page time between Lydya and Val than between Lydya and Tess!" She highlighted a large portion of her screen. "You can see the exact breakdown here."

"Wow," Scorpia said.

"This is so cool," Catra said gleefully. "I can't wait for you to post it, so that we can rub it in the faces of those Brightheart shippers! We'll see if Adora can keep churning out those sappy fics when she sees how the data clearly backs up Valydya!"

Scorpia and Entrapta exchanged a look.

They spent the rest of the evening eating pizza and watching AMVs. When it came time to go to bed, or really, past time to go to bed, Scorpia volunteered to take the cot.

"I don't mind, really," she said, doing her best to lie on the cot in such a way that no part of her hung over the edge.

Catra, who was already splayed out across one bed, watched her with one slitted eye. "Scorpia, you're about twice the size of that cot."

Scorpia laughed, self-conscious. "Maybe if I sleep on my side… whoops, okay, maybe my other side…"

"I can take the cot," Entrapta offered. "I've never slept on one before, but maybe it will be… fun?"

"Oh, would you?" Relief flooded Scorpia's voice. "Thank you so much!"

"Sure, no problem," Entrapta said. "How difficult could it be?" They traded places.

It was time to turn out the lights. Once the room was dark, Scorpia said, "Good night, guys! Tomorrow's the con! The sooner we fall asleep, the sooner tomorrow will come!"

"Good night!" Entrapta replied. "And that's demonstrably untrue, but a nice thought!"

"Gnight," Catra murmured. She drifted off.

Catra woke with the thought that she should work on her fic. It was the middle of the night, her friends were probably asleep, and surely she could at least make enough progress that she could finish it in the morning. She felt restless energy coursing through her body, guilt at her lack of progress mixing with a sudden desire to have it done before the con. Despite the overwhelming feeling that she should get up and get to work, she found that she could not actually muster the willpower to get out of the comfortable bed. Instead, she lay there, becoming ever more aware of the passage of time and the approach of morning.

As the nervous energy started to fade, she could hear Scorpia snoring softly in the darkness. There was another sound, less recognizable. She realized it was Entrapta muttering to herself. Catra turned over, but the muttering continued. She moved down to the foot of the bed and whispered, "What is it?"

"Oh sorry," Entrapta whispered back, more loudly than Catra had expected. "I was just trying to find the optimal way to sleep on this narrow, hard bed. It's proving to be more of a challenge than anticipated."

Catra closed her eyes, tired. "Just lie on your back and go to sleep."

"Okay. Good night."

"Night."

Some time passed.

"Catra? It's not working."

"Okay," Catra sighed. She shook off the blankets and stood. "I'll take the cot. You can have the bed."

Entrapta sat up. "Really? You mean it?"

"I was having trouble sleeping on the bed anyway," Catra said, which was true. "It's too big and soft," she added, which was definitely not.

Entrapta leaped off the cot. "Thank you!"

"Snrk," said Scorpia, then went back to gentle snores.

"Don't mention it," Catra murmured, crawling onto the cot while Entrapta got into the bed. "Good night," she said, deciding she could await the morning in the cot as easily as in the bed.

* * *

She must have fallen asleep at some point after all. The next morning, Entrapta and Scorpia both seemed to simultaneously go from dead asleep to wide awake as they began their preparations for the con. Catra struggled to keep up, washing up and getting dressed while wondering how anyone could be a morning person.

When Scorpia saw what Catra was wearing, she said, "Hey, great Val cosplay!"

"What? This?" asked Catra, her voice rising unintentionally. "It's not cosplay! It's just an outfit."

Entrapta examined her. "It definitely bears a resemblance to Val's casual outfit from the third and fourth seasons of television show. The cut of the shirt's not quite right, and the pants are too long, and your boots don't really look like Val's…"

"I know that!" Catra grumbled.

Scorpia widened her eyes and started to smile. "So you are--"

"No I'm not!" Catra insisted. "I'm not like those nerds Glimmer and Bow. And besides," she added, plucking at her shirt self-consciously, "if I were to try to cosplay, I'd do a better job than this."

Entrapta said, "I think a simple outfit inspired by the look of a character can be a great starting cosplay!"

Catra sighed. "Let's just get breakfast."

They ate the hotel's continental breakfast, scarfing down their waffles, pancakes, bacon, eggs, sausages, and hashbrowns. Based on what some of the other guests were wearing, at least some of them were also going to SwordCon, and that heightened their excitement.

When they had finished eating, they went back to their rooms to finish getting ready, and then it was time to walk to the convention center. Along the way, they saw a few others heading in the same direction, and by the time they were within a block of the convention center, the streets were packed with people wearing merch for the various shows, games, and book series represented at SwordCon. They spotted several people wearing cosplay, though Catra did not see anyone who looked like Glimmer or Bow.

The outside of the convention center had a huge sign welcoming them to SwordCon. Inside, flags hung in the entrance area for the larger fandoms. Of course, Catra, Scorpia, and Entrapta had to take a group selfie with the Crown of the Dragonmage flag in the background.

"To document the moment," Entrapta said.

They waited in line, exchanged their tickets for passes, and entered the main hall.

"Wow, this place is huge!" Scorpia said, her voice hushed.

"Look at everything!" Entrapta said. "The booths, the tables, the _people!_ " The hall was already so packed with fans that traffic flowed slowly between the rows of tables and booths, and more people entered the hall with every moment. "Where should we go first?" she asked, sounding both awed and a little intimidated.

Catra shrugged. "We've got time. We'll probably see it all eventually."

"Can we check out Artist's Alley?" Scorpia asked.

"Sounds good to me!" Entrapta said.

"I guess," Catra said. "That's as good a place to start as any."

They walked down Artist's Alley, checking out the tables of prints, zines, and original art. There was a lot of Crown of the Dragonmage art, and even a few tables featuring only art from the books and the shows. They stopped to page through binders of art pieces or check out fan comics, buying a couple.

"Wow, everyone is so good," Scorpia said wistfully.

Catra noticed Scorpia was clutching her backpack close to her body. "Are you going to hand out any of your zines?" she asked.

"Oh, I couldn't," Scorpia said. "How could anyone want my zine when all the other art here is so much better?"

"I like your zine," Entrapta said.

"Thanks," Scorpia said, frowning.

"Scorpia, your stuff is definitely not the worst art here," Catra said. "That guy back there?" She pointed. "Definitely worse than yours."

"It's nice to know I'm not the worst," Scorpia said, somehow sounding sincere. "Are you just saying that because that guy drew all that Brightheart art, though?"

Catra was about to reply when she saw someone at a nearby table flipping through a binder of Crown of the Dragonmage prints. She was blond and athletic, with her hair in a ponytail. She paused on a picture of Lydya and Val squaring off. Could she be a fan?

"Come on," Entrapta said, "Don't just stand there, we've got so many tables left to go!"

They continued browsing Artist's Alley, though Catra kept pausing to look for the blond girl. She caught sight of her a few more times, each time looking at Crown of the Dragonmage stuff, but lost track of her before they finished Artist's Alley.

"Okay, what next?" Scorpia asked.

"They have toys!" Entrapta's wail was so loud that several people nearby turned to look at them. Completely oblivious to their stares, Entrapta rushed over to a booth displaying stacks of action figures and statues of the characters. "Wow, look, check out this statue of Lydya suffering from the Wyrmblight! It's a limited edition variant with extra goo!"

"Good eye," chuckled the salesperson, an older lady with wild pinkish-white hair and huge round glasses.

"Did you see the price tag?" Catra whispered to her.

"Holy mamas!" Entrapta screamed, even louder than before. She started to turn away, but she turned back to take a picture. "To remember it by," she sighed wistfully.

They continued through the tables of merchandise, when Catra's eye fell on something. She stopped.

Entrapta looked at her with concern and leaned in to peer at Catra's face. "Are you okay? Your pupils are all wide."

"Look at those swords!" Catra breathed. She felt like she was floating as she approached the table. There were swords, daggers, knives, and even a few more unusual weapons. Catra picked up several blades. She could tell that some of them were from various shows. "Oh, it's Drake's Tooth!" she exclaimed, grabbing a replica of Lydya's sword.

"You look awesome," Scorpia said, taking a picture. Catra tried a few poses, and Scorpia took more pictures. At one point, she nearly poked a thin young man with a mop of blond hair. His muscular friend with her hair in braids glared at Catra, who did not pay them any attention.

Entrapta inspected the blades on the table. "Despite their fearsome appearance, the designs of these blades and the materials used in their construction would make them ill-suited for actual combat."

Catra inspected the sword, turning it this way and that. "I'll bet you could still stab someone pretty good with this."

Entrapta considered it. "You might get two, possibly three good stabs in before the blade broke."

"Meh," Catra said, putting the sword back on its stand.

When they had wandered the convention floor long enough and felt themselves starting to get hungry, they went to get lunch at the food court of the mall next door to the convention center. It turned out that many of their fellow convention-goers had the same thought, and the food court was flooded with people in nerdy garb and cosplay.

"Ooh, they have sushi!" Entrapta said.

Scorpia frowned. "Are you sure you want mall sushi?"

"Seems kinda dubious," Catra agreed.

"I love it! It's so tiny!" Entrapta declared. As she went to stand in line, she said over her shoulder, "Whoever gets their food first should grab us a table!"

Scorpia turned in place, considering her options. "I think I'll get a salad."

Catra laughed with surprise. "You don't strike me as the salad type!"

Scorpia pointed at one of the food places. "These guys make big salads." She raised her eyebrows at Catra. "You want one?"

"I'm not really into salads…" Catra said. She saw a place she recognized. "I'll get a fish sandwich. Maybe with some onion rings."

"Oh, that sounds good! I hope I can steal a couple."

Catra grinned. "If you ask, is it still stealing?"

Catra got her food and was looking for her friends when she noticed the cute blonde from before eating by herself. Catra watched her for a few moments before moving on. She found her friends' table, where Entrapta was arranging the pieces of sushi on her plate while Scorpia dug into an enormous chicken salad.

Catra sat down and started munching her sandwich. Scorpia grabbed a few of her onion rings. After a few bites, Catra said, "Hey, do you see that blond girl with the ponytail over there?" She kept her voice casual. "I saw her at the con earlier. I think she's into CDM." She ate an onion ring as nonchalantly as she could manage.

Scorpia and Entrapta both turned in their seats. "Who?" Scorpia asked.

"No, don't look at the same time!" Catra said, not at all casual now.

Her friends turned back around. "Too late!" Entrapta said. "We already looked."

"She's cute," Scorpia observed with a smile.

"I mean, I guess," Catra said. She grabbed a giant onion ring and crammed the whole thing into her mouth.

"Are you gonna go talk to her?" Scorpia asked.

"I can't abandon you guys," Catra said.

Entrapta redistributed the remaining pieces of sushi on her plate to cover the surface evenly. She said, "She's eating by herself. Maybe she'd like some company."

"Well…" Catra hesitated.

"Do it, do it," Scorpia chanted quietly, lifting a forkful of salad in time with her chants.

"It would make an interesting experiment!" Entrapta urged.

"Well, okay," said Catra, secretly relieved her friends had talked her into it. "Here goes nothing."

She picked up her tray and started making her way toward the blond girl's table, rehearsing in her head what she was going to say. Should she admit to having seen her at the con? Would it be better to start by asking her why she was in town? But what if she was a local? Should Catra introduce herself first?

As she started to near the table, she saw two other people also approaching from another direction. The first thing she noticed was that they were in cosplay as Tess Oakheart and Ivan Lightsinger. She suppressed a snort at their choice in characters, but she also felt a spark of joy at the confirmation that the blond girl was into Crown of the Dragonmage. That spark of joy turned into a bonfire of despair when she realized that she recognized the cosplayers: it was Glimmer and Bow. Which meant that the girl at the table had to be…

"Adora!" Glimmer exclaimed, so loudly that Catra couldn't help but overhear. "We were looking for you on the convention floor! Did you see our texts?"

No, this couldn't be right. The girl couldn't be Adora! Adora was supposed to be wearing a button with her avatar on it, and Catra couldn't see anything like that on her.

"You left your button in the hotel room!" Bow said, pulling a button from one of Ivan Lightsinger's many pouches. And there it was: Adora's horrible grinning unicorn, which she now pinned on her shirt.

Then Adora looked up, and her eyes met with Catra's. Catra felt the whole room drop away, and she was trapped in Adora's blue eyes. She realized that she was just standing there, holding a tray with a half-eaten sandwich and a few remaining onion rings, gawping at Adora and her friends. It took all her self-control not to drop the tray and bolt. Instead, she turned, feeling a bit unsteady on her feet, and managed to make it back to Scorpia and Entrapta's table.

"Looks like the experiment ended prematurely," Entrapta observed.

"What happened?" Scorpia asked. Then, seeing Catra's face, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," Catra said, trying to keep her voice light. "Yeah, everything's fine. Oh, and just so you know, it turns out that girl is Adora." Her voice definitely wobbled on that last word.

Scorpia hissed between her teeth. "Yikes. That's going to make getting to know her kind of awkward."

Catra gave a bitter laugh. "Ya think?" She started eating her sandwich, taking large bites and chewing rapidly.

"This calls for a new strategy!" Entrapta said. "Let's see, first, maybe we should—"

"We should go back to the convention floor," Catra declared with her mouth full. "Finish your sushi."

Entrapta tilted her head. "Huh?"

Catra dearly wished she didn't care, but she had to ask. "Is she looking this way? No, don't both look at the same time _again!_ "

"She definitely glanced this way," Entrapta said.

"It sure looked that way," Scorpia confirmed.

Catra sighed. "Probably just because you two keep looking in unison," she said, hoping that was it. She reminded herself that, even if she had made a fool of herself in front of her greatest rival, at least Adora didn't know who she was. She finished her sandwich. "Do you want the last of my onion rings?" she asked Scorpia. "I don't think I can finish them."

* * *

Back at the convention, Catra wandered aimlessly, with her friends following along. Sometimes Scorpia or Entrapta would stop to look at something, or even try to get Catra's attention, but Catra just walked listlessly on as though she hadn't noticed. She played the whole thing over and over in her mind, and it seemed worse each time.

Occasionally she caught sight of Adora, Bow, and Glimmer in the crowd. Regardless of what they were looking at or who they were talking to, they always seemed to be having fun.

Entrapta tugged Catra's sleeve to get her attention. "Why are we following around Adora and her friends?"

"What?" Catra said, snapping back to reality. "I'm not!"

"We've been following them around for almost twenty minutes," Entrapta said matter-of-factly.

"It sure seems that way," Scorpia said.

"I don't even know what you're talking about!" Catra insisted. "I've been looking at stuff! And… and doing stuff!"

She looked around for something to pay attention to, purposefully walking away from Adora's group. Plushies, buttons, stickers… she saw a table with some fan comics and browsed quickly through them. She was relieved to find a Valydya comic, with some pretty good art to boot. She started flipping through it, and maybe she was a little too eager for the distraction, because she soon finished it.

"So, do you like Crown of the Dragonmage?" Adora asked.

Catra nearly yelped. She hadn't noticed Adora and her friends approach, but there they were. Perhaps because she was so startled, she lashed out. "Yeah, obviously," she said, standing up straighter. She held up the comic, where Lydya and Val half-embraced while holding their swords to each other's throats. "Of course, you could say I'm more a Valydya fan than a CDM fan, since Valydya is the best thing about the show."

"Oh, uh, okay," Adora said, taking a small step back.

"Yeah, I like ships that have an edge to them," Catra continued. She felt like her mouth was on autopilot. "Give me characters with passion in their interactions! Whether they're fighting or doin' it, it doesn't matter, as long as they're giving it every ounce of their beings! Or both at the same time, even!" Was she making any sense?

Adora wrung her hands together. "Sure, I could see that! I mean, I like friends-to-lovers stories, when two people really care about each other--"

"Ha!" Catra sneered. "Fluff? I want angst you can really sink your teeth into!" She bared her teeth in a smile.

Adora smiled back, which caught her off-guard. "Do you write fanfic? I sometimes do, but I mostly write Brightheart." She looked down at her button. "But I think you probably knew that."

Catra hesitated, momentarily wrong-footed. Desperate not to let the silence stretch, she plunged forward. "Yeah, I write sometimes, and even though I may not have the legions of followers that _some_ writers in this fandom do, at least the stories I write are worth reading!"

"Have you read a lot of Brightheart fic?" Adora asked, in a voice so gentle that it almost sounded shy.

"Why would I waste my time?" Catra demanded.

"How about some Gen fics, then?" Adora persisted. "Stories where the focus isn't on the ships?"

Before she could stop herself, Catra said, "Why hang out when you could be making out?" Oh no. Was she trying to flirt? Where had that come from? Adora gave her a confused look. Catra's brain must have totally short-circuited at that moment, and all that she could manage was her usual, "Valydya for life!"

"Nice to meet you, Catra."

No brain. "Huh?" Nice.

Adora sighed. "You're Catra, right? ‘Valydya for life?' You only write Valydya fic, and you're always talking trash about Brightheart on Twitter and Tumblr and stuff. And about me and my friends."

"Yeah, I'm Catra." She should say more than that. "And I only talk trash about Brightheart because it sucks."

Adora crossed her arms. "Yeah, I gathered that you felt that way."

"It's the only reasonable conclusion!" Catra insisted. "Hey, Entrapta, can you get out Emily for a second?"

When she turned, she noticed that Entrapta already had Emily out. She had set it on the corner of a nearby table and she and Glimmer were looking at something.

Glimmer said, "Your meta from this morning was really impressive!"

"Thanks! It was exhaustively researched," Entrapta replied.

"But if you're examining how often they make eye contact, it stands to reason that Val and Lydya's numbers would be higher, because whenever they're together, they're usually fighting. When you're fighting, you make eye contact. So if you don't count combat scenes…"

Entrapta started typing furiously. "...then the numbers move back toward Brightheart!"

"Hey!" Catra said, loud enough that Entrapta and Glimmer both turned, as did several passers-by. "You can't betray Valydya like that!"

Entrapta fidgeted. "What do you mean? I'm just reporting the numbers!"

Catra looked for Scorpia. "Scorpia, can you believe…"

Scorpia was hovering over Bow's shoulder as Bow read her zine. Bow was saying, "This is so good! I still remember when you were just getting started. You've come a long way, and I really love how your style is evolving! It's very dynamic, and your facial expressions are wonderful." The words could have sounded condescending, but Bow's tone was truly sincere.

"Ugh, fine!" Catra said, throwing up her hands. "Why don't you just enjoy the con with your new friends!"

Scorpia looked up. "Wait, what?"

"I'm outta here," Catra fumed. As she stormed across the convention floor, people hurried to get out of her way. She found a back door and slipped out. Not really paying attention to where she was going, she walked around the building until she found a nook beside a row of bushes. She put her back to the wall and slid down it until her knees were against her chest. Wrapping her arms around her legs, she rested her forehead on her knees.

Now what? She had made herself look like a huge jerk. Could she face Adora and her friends again? And what about Scorpia and Entrapta?

Catra sat there, feeling helpless, playing various scenarios out in her brain. In some of them, she apologized, looking even worse than she already did. In others, she went back to scold Adora, or Entrapta or Bow. She imagined all the devastating things she might say. It didn't make her feel any better. Several times, she took out her phone and started texting Entrapta and Scorpia, but she deleted the texts before she sent them. She also composed a few tweets about fake friends, awful cons, and terrible ships, but she deleted those, too. It occurred to her that she should probably get up and leave the nook, since staying there wasn't helping the situation, but she really didn't want to.

Footsteps made her look up. "Hey, Adora," she said. "Wait, did you come looking for me?"

"Hi, Catra," Adora said. "And no, I had no idea you were here."

"Then what are you doing here?"

Adora sighed. She put her back to the wall and slid down until she was sitting next to Catra. "This is where I spent most of my morning."

Catra said, "I saw you inside."

"For a bit, yeah. But then I spotted Glimmer and Bow, and I came out here before they saw me."

"Wait, you were avoiding them? Your sweet little friends?"

"I don't know why I'm telling you this," Adora said, giving Catra a sharp look.

"I don't know why you're telling me this either."

They both sat in silence for a while. Catra figured one of them should probably leave, but it wasn't going to be her.

Adora picked a long blade of grass and started shredding it. "There's a cosplay contest this evening. Glimmer and Bow talked me into participating. They even created a costume for me."

"Let me guess," Catra said, feeling one edge of her mouth quirk up.

"Yeah. Lydya Brightsword. It's a really good costume, too."

"I'll bet. Those two put way too much effort into those things."

Adora looked at Catra and raised her eyebrows. "You mean you think they're good?"

"I never said that!" Catra said. Adora didn't say anything. After a minute, Catra asked, "So if the costume is so good, what's the problem?"

"Well, a lot of the people at the competition are going to do a skit, and Glimmer and Bow want to do one, too."

"Barf," Catra said, but she hoped it sounded sympathetic.

"It wouldn't be so bad, except as Lydya, everyone would be focusing on me. They said I could even write the script, and I tried a couple where I just come in at the end, or we're just hanging out, or maybe where I'm frozen or injured or something, but every time, I just know, too much of the audience would be looking at me."

Catra looked over at her. "I thought you liked the attention."

Adora gave her a look, as though she couldn't decide whether Catra was being genuine. Truth be told, Catra wasn't sure, either. Adora said, "I like writing things that make people happy. The world can be a tough, scary place, so I like creating stories where characters are friends and they show how much they care about each other."

"Gag," Catra said, but as soon as Adora's face fell, Catra forced a smile to show that she didn't really mean it.

Adora frowned in thought as she looked Catra over. Catra found her face growing warm. "You know," Adora mused, "it's a shame we don't have a Val for our skit. You look like you're more than halfway to a Val cosplay already."

"Oh no," Catra said. She couldn't help but laugh. "I'm not a nerd like you and your friends!"

"If we had a Val in the skit, she'd take the pressure off me! Any scene with Val and Lydya together is instantly the focus of the episode."

"So you admit it!" Catra crowed. "Valydya--"

Adora waved a hand. "I admit nothing! All I'm saying is that the audience would be looking at Val at least as much as they'd be looking at Lydya." She gave Catra a small, hopeful smile. "Of course, you'd never do that. You pretty much hate me, right?"

Catra couldn't meet her eyes, so she looked up along the walls of the nook toward the sky. "I don't hate _you_ ," she mumbled.

Sitting there, feeling the warmth of Adora's shoulder against hers (how long had their shoulders been touching?), she felt a seed of an idea start to form. She told herself that it was an opportunity to prove, in front of an audience, that Lydya and Val had chemistry. "What if I did it?" she asked slowly, her voice quiet. "I mean, you wouldn't stand a chance, this obviously isn't a costume."

Adora looked at her, hope glowing in her blue eyes. "Bow and Glimmer could make some adjustments! They have supplies, in case a costume got damaged in transit or during the con. But they'd have to find reference images…"

Catra chuckled. "You don't have to worry about that. Entrapta's got hundreds." She thought of something and turned closer to Adora, actually starting to get excited. "And Scorpia could design a simplified version of the costume we might be able to make."

"We can pull this off!" Adora said, laughing.

Catra laughed, too. "It feels like something from one of your fluffy fics. I can almost hear the narrator saying ‘She couldn't seem to stop smiling.' You use that phrase in every. Single. One."

Adora blinked, then gave Catra a squinty, appraising look. "You said you've never read a Brightheart fic."

"I…" Catra stammered. "I may have read... some."

"In fact," Adora said, rubbing her chin in mock thoughtfulness, "I received an anon comment on my most recent fic saying that I use that phrase too often."

Uh-oh. "Well, if the comment was anon, you'll never know--"

"The comment arrived within an hour of the story going up. Pretty much every story I write gets an anon comment soon after I post it."

"Sounds like you should turn anon comments off," Catra muttered, suddenly very interested in digging a little hole in the ground with her heel.

"And while it's usually full of complaints about Brightheart and my fics being too fluffy," Adora continued, "this anon also puts a lot of thought into my fics, and notices stuff I was trying to do, like foreshadowing and references. It's kind of encouraging. Well, those parts are."

Catra didn't say anything, or look at Adora. She could feel Adora studying her intently.

"Well," Adora finally said, "If we're going to do this, we should get started. We only have a few hours before the contest!" She stood, and held out a hand to help Catra up. "So, are we doing this?"

Catra took her hand, and Adora pulled her up. "I guess we're doing this." Adora held Catra's hand for a moment longer before releasing it. "Agh, oh no," Catra said, brushing dirt and grass off her backside. If she had stained her pants, they wouldn't stand a chance at the competition. She turned her back on Adora and looked at her over her shoulder. "How's it look?"

"Looks good," Adora said quickly. Maybe a bit too quickly, as she suddenly turned away and took out her phone. "I'm going to text Glimmer and Bow. You should text your friends, too. Have them meet us out front, and we'll go back to our hotel room."

Catra fumbled for her phone, and she started texting.

* * *

Catra was surprised by how quickly Scorpia and Entrapta agreed to the plan. It sounded like they had hit it off with Bow and Glimmer. The next thing she knew, they were all in Adora, Glimmer, and Bow's hotel room, which was a frenzy of activity. Glimmer and Bow prepared their gear, Entrapta scanned through her catalog of images for the best ones, and Scorpia sketched possible costume alterations that might be something they could pull off.

With all that going on, it was no wonder that Catra's heart was beating so hard, and she told herself it had nothing to do with suddenly finding herself in Adora's room. Everyone was talking over each other. Then she noticed that everyone was looking at her, as though waiting for her to say something.

"What?" Catra asked.

"You need to take your clothes off," Adora said.

Catra's face instantly grew hot. "Huh?"

Glimmer explained, "We can't exactly work on your outfit while you're wearing it."

Catra stammered, "Well, I'm not just gonna…" She couldn't look at Adora. "...get naked…"

"We only need your shirt and pants," Bow said, as if standing in the room in her underwear would be much better.

"Maybe we could wrap you in a sheet?" Scorpia asked, lifting a corner of a bedsheet.

Adora stood up and crossed the room to a small suitcase. "Here, you can wear some of my clothes." She got out a hoodie and sweatpants. "Is that okay?"

Catra hesitated. Everyone was looking at her expectantly. "Yeah, I guess so," she mumbled. She took the clothes and went into the bathroom to get dressed. It felt surreal, changing into Adora's clothes while in her bathroom. She gave her own clothes a few sniffs and decided they were okay. It was too late to back out now. As she headed out, he caught herself looking at the toothbrushes by the sink and wondering which one was Adora's. She shook her head, made herself focus, and left.

"You look cute!" Scorpia said as soon as she saw Catra. Well, Catra was pretty sure she was already blushing, so no harm done there.

Glimmer took her shirt, Bow took her pants, and they immediately got to work. As they worked, they checked Scorpia's designs.

"There's not going to be enough material in the sleeves for the whole collar," Glimmer said.

Scorpia grabbed her pencil. "I think I can design a smaller one that still gives the right silhouette."

Bow started on the pants. "We'll need to hem the pants to make them look boot-cut. Entrapta, can you get me a closer look at Val's lower legs?"

"You got it!" Entrapta said, bringing up pictures on Emily's screen.

Catra grabbed the only empty chair in the room and brought it over to the desk where Adora was sitting.

"So," Adora said. She scooted her chair a little closer to Catra's and pulled over an old laptop. It looked practically like an antique when compared to Emily. "We should figure out how to work Val into the scene. We may have to rewrite pretty much the whole skit."

They got started. "We can keep it pretty short," Adora said. "We don't want the audience to get bored, or wear out our welcome with the judges."

"Maybe Lydya, Tess, and Ivan are making camp, and Val interrupts them?"

Adora started typing. "Oh, that's great! We can do a quick bit of humor at the camp, and then some drama when Val arrives!"

They started tossing out lines. When the characters got ready for a snack, Catra had a thought. "Maybe Ivan has a bunch of biscuits, and he says something like, ‘I can't seem to stop making biscuits, ever since the Turnshift.' You know, because--"

"--he turned into a cat! That's hilarious!" Adora said, typing. "We don't actually need biscuits as props if Val interrupts them before he can get them out." She nudged Catra with her elbow. "Look at you, writing fluff!"

"What! Fluff?" Catra said, her voice rising in pitch.

Adora laughed. "Okay, so Val comes out at this point. ‘The only meal you'll be having will be the taste of my blade!' How's that?"

"That's awful," Catra said, grinning.

Adora grinned back. "I know!"

They kept going, and the voices of Bow, Glimmer, Entrapta, and Scorpia faded into the background, at least until Bow called out, "We're out of time! How's that shirt doing?"

"Just wrapping up!" Glimmer called, her voice high with tension.

Bow tossed the pants at Catra, and a moment later, Glimmer added the shirt. "Go put them on!" Glimmer said, pushing Catra toward the bathroom "We should have left five minutes ago!"

Adora loaded her email site. "I'll send you all the scripts. You can read them on your phones while the other teams are going."

"Wait, Adora still needs to put on her costume, too!" Bow realized.

Adora got her costume from where it was hanging. "Better hurry, Catra!"

"No time!" Bow said, pushing Adora toward the bathroom.

"What?" Adora squeaked. "Hey!"

"He's right!" Glimmer said, still pushing Catra. "You'll just have to figure it out!"

Moments later, Catra found herself in the bathroom with Adora, trying very hard not to look while simultaneously fumbling with her newly-altered clothes. Still, the bathroom mirror was right there, and she couldn't help but catch a glimpse of some very impressive back muscles as Adora hurried into her costume.

"Thanks for doing this," Adora said, and Catra had to stop herself from turning around. "It's really nice of you."

Something about how genuine Adora sounded broke through something that had been on Catra's mind. "I'm not nice," Catra said, blinking hard while fumbling with newly-relocated buttons. "I was careless and made Entrapta do a ton of really time-consuming analysis, and I never even properly thanked her. And then I made Scorpia believe that her art was barely better than the worst artist at Artist's Alley, when really she's much better."

Adora was silent for a moment, and Catra wondered if she was embarrassed that someone she barely knew was suddenly unburdening herself on her. But then Adora said, "So you should tell them. It's not too late."

"Just tell them?" Catra asked, incredulous. "Just like that?"

"Why not?" Adora said.

Someone knocked on the bathroom door and Glimmer called, "Whatever you're doing in there, wrap it up! We gotta move!"

They stumbled out of the bathroom, Catra still clasping her belt and Adora undoing her ponytail and brushing her hair out with her fingers. Glimmer and Bow rushed over to them and helped them pull a few things into place.

"It'll have to do!" Bow said. "Now let's go!"

* * *

They just barely made it back in time, and soon they were waiting with the other contestants in a hallway beside the auditorium where the cosplay competition was taking place. Catra looked around, and everyone's costumes looked really good. Catra and the others hadn't even had time to do their makeup.

Scorpia and Entrapta came over to Catra. "We should probably go join the audience," Scorpia said, "or they'll make us join the skit!"

"I'm not good at ad-libbing!" Entrapta said.

Scorpia gave Catra a soft punch on the shoulder. "Well, break a leg!"

As they turned to leave, Catra said. "Wait!"

Entrapta and Scorpia turned back. "Do you want me to ad-lib?" Entrapta asked nervously.

"No, that's not it. Listen…" Catra took a deep breath. She glanced over at Adora, who gave her a small thumbs-up. "I'm sorry about earlier."

"About what?" Entrapta asked, sounding genuinely curious.

"About making you do all that analysis, with the eye contact and stuff, even in the books. I never meant for you to do so much! I should have been more clear."

"Oh, haha, it's no problem!" Entrapta said. "It was fun!"

"Even so," Catra said. "I never really thanked you for it. You did amazing."

"Thanks," Entrapta said.

Catra turned to Scorpia. "And your stuff isn't better than the worst person at Artist's Alley." As Scorpia's face fell and she started to say something, Catra hurried on. "You're one of the best! You still see your art as the way it was when you were just starting out, and that's partly because I never tell you how just much better you've gotten."

"Aw, c'mon, that's not true," Scorpia said, trying to wave away what Catra was saying.

"It _is_ true!" Catra insisted, her hands forming fists at her side. "You're _amazing_ and you'd better accept it! You're both _amazing_ , and I haven't been telling you that enough, because I've been feeling like a failure for not having finished a story in ages!"

"O-oh Catra!" Entrapta stammered.

"You're making progress, even if it's slow!" Scorpia said. "And when it's done, I'm gonna love it. I just know it! Now come here!" And before Catra could protest, Scorpia gathered her and Entrapta up into a huge hug. "And you finished that script, didn't you? So I'm counting that."

She had, hadn't she?

Catra had no choice but to melt into Scorpia's hug. She was just that good of a hugger. When Scorpia finally released her and Entrapta, Catra couldn't find her voice, so she merely waved to her friends as they hurried off to find seats.

Catra felt better, and then she saw Adora smiling at her, and she felt even better. Then she realized that it was almost time for them to go on stage, and she hadn't yet gone over the script yet. She could see Glimmer and Bow reading on their phones, and Adora had her phone up, too. Catra snatched out her phone and scrolled through to Val's parts. She had just written it, right? So she should remember it?

An organizer rushed over to them. "You're almost up! Wait for the other group to get off stage, then we'll announce you, and then you can start."

Catra followed the others to the back door into the auditorium. Why had she agreed to do this? If her role was to take the audience's attention off Adora, that meant the audience's attention would be on her!

Then it was time for Adora, Glimmer, and Bow to make their entrances, leaving Catra by herself. She wondered if she was sweating through her costume. Was it too late to flee? The audience was laughing at the joke about making biscuits. Since the audience seemed to be enjoying the show, maybe Adora and her friends would do fine without her.

Wait, that was her cue! She strode onto the stage, and almost flubbed her line when the audience cheered at her arrival. Of course, she should have known that a character walking on stage would get a cheer. She started her line again. "The only meal you'll be having will be the taste of my blade!" she declared, her voice ringing out. The audience laughed appreciatively. Catra started to smile, and she quickly turned it into a suitably Val-like sneer.

Bow said his line, "Val! Here to ruin things, as usual!"

Glimmer continued, "Why can't you just leave us alone?"

What was the next line? Oh, right. "The Void Empress sends her regards!"

Adora squared her shoulders. She really did look like Lydya in that costume. "I hope you're ready for a fight!" Several people in the audience cheered.

The lines were coming to mind more easily now, and Catra hammed it up. "I'm always ready, but I don't think you'll be much of a challenge!"

Adora strode toward Catra. "What are you going to do to me?" Wait, that wasn't in the script. Was she ad-libbing? Adora winked so that the audience couldn't see it.

Catra's mind raced. What should she do? What would Val say? "Something from your worst nightmares." Well, it sounded suitably villainous.

Adora held up a hand. "Are you sure you wouldn't rather do something from my best dreams?"

Woa. _Woa._ Was Adora flirting with her? On stage? In character? (...only in character?)

Was Adora turning this into a Valydya scene?

There were a few whoops and whistles from the crowd. Glimmer and Bow gawped at Adora, but her eyes were on Catra. Well, if Adora wanted a little Valydya, Catra didn't need a script. "Don't flatter yourself, Your Majesty. You could never keep up with me."

Adora flexed an arm. Hello, bicep. "Are you sure? I've always held my own so far."

Glimmer whispered, "So, do you guys still need us for this, or…"

Catra ignored her and strode closer to Adora. She was so focused on making her stride suitably imperious that she didn't realize how close it would take her to Adora. They were almost touching. "Watch yourself. You know I always play for keeps."

Adora leaned forward, and while for a wild, heart-stopping second, Catra thought she was going to kiss her. But then she said. "Then have at you!" and they were back on script again.

They did a quick stage fight, Val was defeated, and Ivan told a joke about their interrupted meal and just desserts. Adora had come up with that one, and the audience laughed while Adora helped Catra to her feet. Catra turned to leave, but Adora grabbed her wrist before she could flee so that they could bow. Catra's heart was pounding so loud that it almost drowned out the audience's cheering.

After what felt like an eternity but was probably closer to thirty seconds, they left the stage. Bow and Glimmer went to find Entrapta and Scorpia, but Adora took Catra aside. "Sorry about that," she said, her voice soft. "I kind of got caught up in the moment. I didn't mean to put you on the spot like that."

She looked so sweet and earnest and beautiful, and Catra was still full of adrenaline from the performance, that she leaned in and kissed her. Part of her brain wanted to pay attention to what was happening so that she could use it for reference in her writing later, but the rest of her brain was too busy thinking, _wow this is happening, this is real, this is really happening right now, wow, wow!_

When they parted, Adora broke into a big, goofy, gorgeous grin. "Promise me you'll stop leaving anon comments on my fics?"

Catra blinked. Did Adora want her to stop commenting on her fics?

Adora added, "You'd better leave comments as yourself from now on."

Catra groaned as they made their way to the auditorium's main entrance. "And let people know I read Brightheart fics?"

Adora took her hand. "Okay, let's go."

They found their friends and sat down. The winners of the competition would be announced soon, but Catra didn't really care if they won or not.

She couldn't seem to stop smiling.


End file.
